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MG MGA - Help - No Cranking...

Hi All,

Long story short - had a number of issues, where when driving my roadster, it sounded briefly like the engine was trying to restart whilst in motion. As this happened momentarily I didn't do too much about it.

All of a sudden, I have gone to start the car (MGB 1800 engine in it) and cannot get the engine to crank over at all. Just complete silence...

Everything else seems to be working ok. Tested the battery - seems fine, changed the ignition switch, still nothing.

I bypassed the starter solenoid and the starter motor is whirring away nicely, so thought it must be the solenoid - so changed both and still nothing...

Slooowly running out of ideas..

Any advice ?

Aleks
Aleks Stojanovic

Have you checked the wiring between the ignition switch and the solenoid? Does applying voltage to the trigger pin of the solenoid directly trigger the starter?

Just because the solenoid is new does not mean to is working correctly

Dominic Clancy

Solenoid on an MGA Lucas starter? Didn't know there was one. Surely the solenoid is only on the later pre-engaged starter. By-passing it won't do anything. The solenoid is used to push the starter dog forward to engage the flywheel and make an electrical contact for the starter motor to turn.

Steve
Steve Gyles

It depends on the setup Steve,
my MGA has a standard inertia starter, but it came with a dash-mounted push button starter switch and a solenoid.

It may be a remnant from the cars race-car heritage, or just that the DPO preferred not to use an original pull-type starter switch.

Here's a pic of the type of solenoid fitted to my car.

Cheers
Colyn

PS Steve, I did try a high-torque starter on my car but the odd combination of a High-Gear "Early-B" alloy bell-housing and a 5-brg engine caused some alignment problems and I couldn't get the High-Torque starter to engage with the flywheel correctly.
I tried 4 different High-Torque starters in total, the last one caused a dead short through the motor which almost melted the battery cable.
So I gave up at that point and decided to stay with the inertia starter



Colyn Firth

Colyn. Hence my question mark. I guess some people refer to the pull switch as a solenoid, which it is not.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Oops! I really should read and digest the original post before I chime in! Sorry.

I didn't notice Aleks comment about bypassing the solenoid.

Can you describe your starter motor and wiring set up in detail Aleks so that we can visualise it better?

Like Steve says, the standard inertia starter motor, has a simple mechanical pull switch and doesn't have a solenoid.

Cheers
Colyn

How is life in Rayong Dominic? Great to hear from you
Colyn Firth

Aleks, did you resolve your problem? If yes, how?

It's coming up on a year since I sold my car and emigrated to Thailand. In a period of eight weeks, I married, retired and moved country. Life has treated me very kindly since then, and my health has improved, I have lost weight and my annual medical last week confirms I am in generally excellent condition.

We have made lots of new friends and socially life is great fun. I don't miss the cold weather of Europe, and the heat waves seem to have become equivalent to here. The current floods that have made headlines around the world have only affected us marginally (40 cm deep water around the house but none inside), and the only major inconvenience is that the local rat population has sought dry refuge in the roof spaces of many houses, and there are many more snakes in the village - I encountered a 2m python while walking the dog a few nights ago.

Do I miss the MGA? Surprisingly after it having played an enormous role in my life for over 30 years, I don't at all regret selling and moving to a new chapter in my life. I am still in contact with many MG friends and hope to remain (albeit on the margins and less actively than in past years) a member of the community as long as I have something to contribute.

Dominic
Dominic Clancy

All good news Dominic, long may it continue, even allowing for the rats and pythons, they have to live somewhere and can move on.
Nigel Atkins

Dominic..just sent to a FB message (in case you don't look at them anymore??)
Gary Lock

Good to hear life is treating you well Dominic, and that yout health is good
Graham V

This thread was discussed between 01/09/2022 and 20/09/2022

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